A Stronger, Fairer Future for St Helena: Government Sets Out New Vision Strategy
St Helena has come a long way in recent years with the successful delivery of some key projects and policies, including the delivery of a new port in Rupert’s, improved road infrastructure, the recovery of tourism through the Tourism Recovery Strategy, internationally recognised marine and terrestrial conservation initiatives, and the commencement of primary re-organisation.
Despite these wins, St Helena still faces a complex set of interlinked social, economic, and environmental challenges that threaten the island’s long-term sustainability and the well-being of our community. Rising costs of living, an aging and declining population, labour shortages, fragile national infrastructure, and declining trust in institutions have eroded public confidence and reinforced a cycle of uncertainty and outward migration. These dynamics reinforce one another. Population decline reduces the labour force and tax base; weak systems undermine confidence; environmental degradation threatens water, food and health; and uncertainty drives outward migration.
The Government is developing its new Vision and Strategy setting out a clear path to first stabilise and start to reverse these trends and build a fairer, more resilient, and forward-looking St Helena. We believe in a community where every person is valued, has the opportunity to live a healthy and fulfilling life, and where families, businesses, and the environment can thrive together.
Our vision is for a fair, inclusive, more resilient and forward-looking St Helena, confident in its future, responsible in its stewardship and united in purpose to become a sustainable thriving community with people at its heart.
We recognise that rebuilding confidence will require phased reform, and a clear focus on what is affordable and what can be delivered sustainably within our financial and institutional capacity. We also recognise the increasing costs of service delivery, as a result of our aging population and shrinking worforce as well as the impact of increasing international costs, for example supply of pharmaceuticals. This means we need to look carefully at the sustainability of our current range of service delivery.
The strategy will be built around three themes that have been shaped by the voices and experiences of St Helenians across the island:
- Stabilising the Population and Labour Market: Creating conditions for people to stay, return, and contribute through fulfilling careers, skills development, and fair access to services.
- Protecting Living Standards and Core Services: Ensuring immediate support for those under pressure, while reforming health, social care, education, and infrastructure for long-term sustainability.
- Enabling Sustainable, Locally Driven Growth: Diversifying the economy, investing in digital and physical infrastructure, and developing productive economic sectors which safeguard the environment as a strategic asset, creating an enabling environment to accelerate opportunities for growth.
Key actions include aligning education and workforce planning with current and future needs, commitment to partnership with the community in preventative healthcare, affordable utilities, and public service modernisation. The strategy also recognises the need for incremental tax and revenue reform and disciplined public financial management. The strategy will support initiatives already in train, such as the continued implementation of the Tourism Development Programme, Company Registry and Financial Services Development Programme, and completion of the long overdue immigration reforms. It also seeks to explore new areas of goverment intervention, with fresh thinking already commenced with the fishery, in high value agriculture, wharf redevelopment, and on expanding the St Helena Research Institute.
Implementation will be phased, with clear milestones and measurable outcomes, which will be shared pending the outcome of budget discussions with the UK Government. Government will communicate openly about progress and constraints, adapt as needed based on evidence and lived experience, and work in partnership across portfolios, communities, business, and civil society.
Government is clear that St Helena cannot only tax its way out of structural challenges by increasing the burden on wages in a shrinking population. Long-term sustainability requires a broader and fairer revenue base, improved compliance, and growth-linked revenues, alongside disciplined public financial management.
By focusing first on stabilising people’s lives and rebuilding trust, while strengthening the foundations of our economy, services, and environment, we will restore confidence and set St Helena on a more secure and hopeful path, step by step, and together.
Policy Priorities 2026–2029
Following on from the above, the Government will focus on nine cross government policy priorities:
1. Stabilise the population and labour market
2. Protect health and social care and improve prevention outcomes
3. Reform education and build the future workforce
4. Reduce the cost of living through investment in utilities and infrastructure
5. Enable sustainable, locally driven economic growth
6. Grow revenues fairly
7. Reform and strengthen the public service
8. Safeguard the environment as a strategic asset
9. Protect living standards during transition
These priorities are aligned with a set of Strategic Outcomes, that reflect the importance of cross portfolio partnerships, the reality of resource limitations, and the interconnections and interdependencies inherent in bringing about changes.
Each outcome guides the various work streams and activities across the different sectors, for example:
- Health: stabilising hospital flow, reducing overseas referrals, expanding residential care, developing sustainable financing models.
- Education: COBIS accreditation, primary school reorganisation, Additional Educational Needs reform, post-16 vocational pathways, a more inclusive educational system and establishing a Higher Educational Provision on St Helena.
- Utilities: renewable energy transition, telecoms regulation, water security.
- Growth: tourism development, Impact Company Registry, financial services reform, agriculture and fisheries revival.
- Public Service: digital transformation, workforce planning, performance management.
Over the coming weeks, the Government will discuss the draft strategy more widely with focused stakeholder groups and invite discussion to help identify any remaining gaps, including issues relevant to groups we have not yet reached. Our aim is to finalise and publish the strategy once we have confirmation of our budgetary aid settlement, expected in April 2026 and at this time clear milestone and timelines will be confirmed. We will review the strategy annually to ensure it remains responsive to the island’s changing needs which time we expect to know our budgetary aid settlement, and we will review it annually to ensure it remains responsive to the island’s changing need.
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